In Libertarian Utopia -- Libertopia, taxes are slavery. So nobody pays taxes in Libertopia. This works because everybody plays fair and nobody tries to take stuff via force. So you don't need a government with taxes to pay police. And the trees grow cotton candy.
In Libertopia, well, okay, so there are nasty people out there. But everybody has guns and has no moral qualms about using them. Well, okay, normal people have moral qualms about killing their fellow man, but in Libertopia that won't disadvantage normal people and allow the most thuggish and morality-free to take over and rule their fellow man due to their greater willingness to kill, because in Libertopia the guns are smart and only kill bad people, not good people!
Well, okay, so guns don't work that way. So in Libertopia, people form voluntary groups to hire police officers to protect them. A neighborhood with forty homes in it would get together voluntarily to hire a police officer to patrol the neighborhood and arrest criminals and bring them to trial before a jury of the homeowners and then hang the criminals. And in Libertopia, there are never any deadbeats amongst that group of homeowners who refuse to pay their fair share towards the cost of that police officer, because in Libertopia , everybody is always cheerful and helpful and pays their fair share.
Well, okay, so like with homeowner's associations today, there's deadbeats who won't pay their fair share towards protecting and maintaining their community. So what we do then is make paying the homeowner's association's dues *mandatory*. If you don't like it, the homeowner's association can seize your house and sell it to someone who *will* pay the dues that the majority of the members of the homeowner's association have levied upon themselves.
And at that point, you are now in reality, rather than Libertopia.
Libertopia is a unicorn, a fictitious animal that cannot exist. Like Communism, it ignores unpleasant truths about human nature -- the fact that many men are violent and will seize things via force of arms if not countered by equally violent men, the fact that most men are NOT violent and thus are prey for the violent if they do not collectively join together to counter the violent, and the fact that far too many people are selfish deadbeats who will not pay their fair share of the costs of maintaining public safety and basic infrastructure unless they are forced to do so. In the real world, the trees do NOT grow cotton candy, and Libertopia is just another ridiculous fairy tale to use to entertain the gullible.
I live in reality, which is often harsh and vicious and brutal, not in a fairy tale. Any system of social organization that does not recognize reality, which relies upon unicorns -- made-up nonsense -- in order to work, is automatic fail and will be swept away by the tides of history. The current Republican extremists, with their hatred of democracy and desire for the closest thing to Libertopia that they can achieve, are in the end pushing for a failed ideology just as much so as the Communists in the latter days of the USSR, and if they actually did achieve their goal, the result would be the same: Societal collapse, anarchy, and then the rise of a strong-man dictator to take over the ruins of a once-great nation.
We have the reality we live in, not the utopia we wish we had. This is it, folks. Governing based on cotton candy trees and unicorns does not, cannot work. So let's quit the nonsense, roll up our sleeves, and get to work doing things that will work, rather than pretending that unicorns are real.
-- Badtux the Pragmatic Penguin
The legacy of Ayn Rand is a cult of beleivers detached from reality, as was she. I have read 'Atlas Shrugged' & 'Fountainhead'. It's always a struggle between the gifted capitalist who is trying to escape being enslaved by socialists misusing government power.
ReplyDeleteThe rich person is always the hero or heroine; great wealth is always the badge of honor which proves the contribution that person has made, which no one has the right to take away.
Nowhere in ANY of Rands stories does she address a Bernie Madoff character. Lay & Skilling (Enron) 'types' don't exist. That's fiction; we live in reality.
In any objective critique of the recession, the cause was the manipulation of real estate, credit, and derivatives. The Rand style whizz-kids who dreamed up the various financial instruments that led to the crash made millions - and are still making millions - and are demanding that they be free of governement oversight because - they are not done yet!
The ideals of Randian utopia never address the excess which the rich can inflict on society - or how a weak or crippled governement can deal with a multinational corporation whose quarterly profits exceed the GNP of all but the largest nations.
Ya' can't have it both ways; either the federal governemnt is strong enough to deal with the big boys, or the big boys will run society into a ditch. We're in a ditch; they put us here. Wake UP!
Yes, Rand relies upon unicorns -- imaginary beasts -- regularly in her works. Her palpable disdain for democracy -- a government which embodies the will of the majority of the people of a State -- is discernable throughout her body of work. She envisions a "government" (or lack thereof) where the will of the majority of the people does not matter, or is evil.
ReplyDeleteIn reality, any system of government which does not meet the needs of the majority of the inhabitants is not long-term sustainable short of brute force and tyranny. The majority simply will not tolerate it. If it continues, eventually they will rise up, dispose of that government, and bring one to power which represents the will of the majority of the people, not the will of a tiny elite.
And that, I suspect, is why President Barack Hussein Obama is terrifying our oligarchs to the point that they are unleashing unicorns (imaginary beasts) at a furious pace in his direction. President Obama represents the notion that we live in a democracy, not in a tyranny of the oligarchs over the governed. And that notion scares the crap out of them.
- Badtux the Sociology Penguin
Idiot ideology is for the unwashed masses.
ReplyDeleteWhat the current Republican extremists, with their hatred of democracy, actually want is the rise of a strong-man dictator (of their chosing) to take over the ruins of a once-great nation.
Dubya was just an early attempt.
Cheers!